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2285 lines
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2285 lines
92 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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<title>The VDR Plugin System</title>
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</style>
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</head>
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<body>
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<div class="center">
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<h1>The VDR Plugin System</h1>
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<b>Version 1.7</b>
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<p>
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Copyright © 2009 Klaus Schmidinger<br>
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<a href="mailto:kls@tvdr.de">kls@tvdr.de</a><br>
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<a href="http://www.tvdr.de">www.tvdr.de</a>
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</div>
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<div class="center">
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<modified>Important modifications introduced since version 1.6 are marked like this.</modified>
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</div>
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<p>
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VDR provides an easy to use plugin interface that allows additional functionality
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to be added to the program by implementing a dynamically loadable library file.
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This interface allows programmers to develop additional functionality for VDR completely
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separate from the core VDR source, without the need of patching the original
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VDR code (and all the problems of correlating various patches).
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<p>
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This document is divided into two parts, the first one describing the
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<a href="#Part I - The External Interface"><i>external</i> interface</a>
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of the plugin system, and the second one describing the
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<a href="#Part II - The Internal Interface"><i>internal</i> interface</a>.
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The <i>external</i> interface handles everything necessary for a plugin to get hooked into the core
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VDR program and present itself to the user.
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The <i>internal</i> interface provides the plugin code access to VDR's internal data
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structures and allows it to hook itself into specific areas to perform special actions.
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<hr>
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<h1>Table Of Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#Part I - The External Interface">Part I - The External Interface</a>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#Quick start">Quick start</a>
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<li><a href="#The name of the plugin">The name of the plugin</a>
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<li><a href="#The plugin directory structure">The plugin directory structure</a>
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<li><a href="#Initializing a new plugin directory">Initializing a new plugin directory</a>
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<li><a href="#The actual implementation">The actual implementation</a>
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<li><a href="#Construction and Destruction">Construction and Destruction</a>
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<li><a href="#Version number">Version number</a>
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<li><a href="#Description">Description</a>
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<li><a href="#Command line arguments">Command line arguments</a>
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<li><a href="#Command line help">Command line help</a>
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<li><a href="#Getting started">Getting started</a>
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<li><a href="#Shutting down">Shutting down</a>
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<li><a href="#Logging">Logging</a>
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<li><a href="#Main menu entry">Main menu entry</a>
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<li><a href="#User interaction">User interaction</a>
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<li><a href="#Housekeeping">Housekeeping</a>
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<li><a href="#Main thread hook">Main thread hook</a>
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<li><a href="#Activity">Activity</a>
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<li><a href="#Wakeup">Wakeup</a>
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<li><a href="#Setup parameters">Setup parameters</a>
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<li><a href="#The Setup menu">The Setup menu</a>
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<li><modified><a href="#Additional files">Additional files</modified></a>
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<li><a href="#Internationalization">Internationalization</a>
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<li><a href="#Custom services">Custom services</a>
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<li><a href="#SVDRP commands">SVDRP commands</a>
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<li><a href="#Loading plugins into VDR">Loading plugins into VDR</a>
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<li><a href="#Building the distribution package">Building the distribution package</a>
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</ul>
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<li><a href="#Part II - The Internal Interface">Part II - The Internal Interface</a>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#Status monitor">Status monitor</a>
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<li><a href="#Players">Players</a>
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<li><a href="#Receivers">Receivers</a>
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<li><a href="#Filters">Filters</a>
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<li><a href="#The On Screen Display">The On Screen Display</a>
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<li><a href="#Skins">Skins</a>
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<li><a href="#Themes">Themes</a>
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<li><a href="#Devices">Devices</a>
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<li><a href="#Audio">Audio</a>
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<li><a href="#Remote Control">Remote Control</a>
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<li><a href="#Conditional Access">Conditional Access</a>
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<li><modified><a href="#Electronic Program Guide">Electronic Program Guide</modified></a>
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</ul>
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</ul>
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<hr><h1 class="center"><a name="Part I - The External Interface">Part I - The External Interface</a></h1>
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<hr><h2><a name="Quick start">Quick start</a></h2>
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<div class="blurb">Can't wait, can't wait!</div><p>
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Actually you should read this entire document before starting to work with VDR plugins,
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but you probably want to see something happening right away <tt>;-)</tt>
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<p>
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So, for a quick demonstration of the plugin system, there is a sample plugin called
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"hello" that comes with the VDR source. To test drive this one, do the following:
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<ul>
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<li>change into the VDR source directory
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<li><b><tt>make</tt></b> the VDR program with your usual <tt>REMOTE=...</tt> (and maybe other) options
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<li>do <b><tt>make plugins</tt></b> to build the plugin
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<li>run VDR with <b><tt>vdr -V</tt></b> to see the version information
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<li>run VDR with <b><tt>vdr -h</tt></b> to see the command line options
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<li>run VDR with <b><tt>vdr -Phello</tt></b>
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<li>open VDR's main menu and select the <i>Hello</i> item
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<li>open the <i>Setup</i> menu from VDR's main menu and select <i>Plugins</i>
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</ul>
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If you enjoyed this brief glimpse into VDR plugin handling, read through the rest of
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this document and eventually write your own VDR plugin.
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<hr><h2><a name="The name of the plugin">The name of the plugin</a></h2>
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<div class="blurb">Give me some I.D.!</div><p>
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One of the first things to consider when writing a VDR plugin is giving the thing
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a proper name. This name will be used in the VDR command line in order to load
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the plugin, and will also be the name of the plugin's source directory, as well
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as part of the final library name.
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<p>
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The plugin's name should typically be as short as possible. Three letter
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abbreviations like <b><tt>dvd</tt></b> (for a DVD player) or <b><tt>mp3</tt></b>
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(for an MP3 player) would be good choices. It is also recommended that the name
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consists of only lowercase letters and digits.
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No other characters should be used here.
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<p>
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A plugin can access its name through the (non virtual) member function
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<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
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const char *Name(void);
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</pre></td></tr></table><p>
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The actual name is derived from the plugin's library file name, as defined in the
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next chapter.
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<hr><h2><a name="The plugin directory structure">The plugin directory structure</a></h2>
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<div class="blurb">Where is everybody?</div><p>
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By default plugins are located in a directory named <tt>PLUGINS</tt> below the
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VDR source directory. Inside this directory the following subdirectory structure
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is used:
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<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
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VDR/PLUGINS/src
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VDR/PLUGINS/src/hello
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VDR/PLUGINS/lib
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VDR/PLUGINS/lib/libvdr-hello.so.1.1.0
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</pre></td></tr></table><p>
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The <tt>src</tt> directory contains one subdirectory for each plugin, which carries
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the name of that plugin (in the above example that would be <tt>hello</tt>).
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What's inside the individual source directory of a
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plugin is entirely up to the author of that plugin. The only prerequisites are
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that there is a <tt>Makefile</tt> that provides the targets <tt>all</tt> and
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<tt>clean</tt>, and that a call to <tt>make all</tt> actually produces a dynamically
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loadable library file for that plugin (we'll get to the details later).
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<p>
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The <tt>lib</tt> directory contains the dynamically loadable libraries of all
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available plugins. Note that the names of these files are created by concatenating
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<p>
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<table border=2>
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<tr><td align=center><b><tt>libvdr-</tt></b></td><td align=center><b><tt>hello</tt></b></td><td align=center><b><tt>.so.</tt></b></td><td align=center><b><tt>1.1.0</tt></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td align=center><small>VDR plugin<br>library prefix</small></td><td align=center><small>name of<br>the plugin</small></td><td align=center><small>shared object<br>indicator</small></td><td align=center><small>API version number<br>this plugin was<br>compiled for</small></td></tr>
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</table>
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<p>
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The <i>API version number</i> refers to the plugin API version number of the VDR
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version this plugin was compiled with. Compiled plugins can run with newer versions
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of VDR as long as their plugin API version number is still the same as that of
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the current VDR version. That way minor fixes to VDR, that don't require changes
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to the VDR header files, can be made without requiring all plugins to be
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recompiled.
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<p>
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The plugin library files can be stored in any directory. If the default organization
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is not used, the path to the plugin directory has be be given to VDR through the
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<b><tt>-L</tt></b> option.
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<p>
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The VDR <tt>Makefile</tt> contains the target <tt>plugins</tt>, which calls
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<tt>make all</tt> in every directory found under <tt>VDR/PLUGINS/src</tt>,
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plus the target <tt>clean-plugins</tt>, which calls <tt>make clean</tt> in
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each of these directories.
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<p>
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If you download a plugin <a href="#Building the distribution package">package</a>
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from the web, it will typically have a name like
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<p>
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<tt>vdr-hello-0.0.1.tgz</tt>
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<p>
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and will unpack into a directory named
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<p>
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<tt>hello-0.0.1</tt>
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<p>
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To use the <tt>plugins</tt> and <tt>clean-plugins</tt> targets from the VDR <tt>Makefile</tt>
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you need to unpack such an archive into the <tt>VDR/PLUGINS/src</tt> directory and
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create a symbolic link with the basic plugin name, as in
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<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
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ln -s hello-0.0.1 hello
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</pre></td></tr></table><p>
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Since the VDR <tt>Makefile</tt> only searches for directories with names consisting
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of only lowercase characters and digits, it will only follow the symbolic links, which
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should lead to the current version of the plugin you want to use. This way you can
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have several different versions of a plugin source (like <tt>hello-0.0.1</tt> and
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<tt>hello-0.0.2</tt>) and define which one to actually use through the symbolic link.
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<p>
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If a plugin needs library files of its own, it can copy them to the <tt>lib</tt>
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directory following the naming convention <tt>lib<i>name</i>-<i>library</i>.so.0.0.1</tt>,
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where <i>name</i> is the name of the plugin, and <i>library</i> identifies the
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plugin's additional library. If the plugin <tt>hello</tt> would require the two
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additional libraries <tt>foo</tt> and <tt>bar</tt>, the names would be
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<p>
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<tt>libhello-foo.so.0.0.1</tt><br>
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<tt>libhello-bar.so.0.0.1</tt>
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<p>
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<hr><h2><a name="Initializing a new plugin directory">Initializing a new plugin directory</a></h2>
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<div class="blurb">A room with a view</div><p>
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Call the Perl script <tt>newplugin</tt> from the VDR source directory to create
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a new plugin directory with a <tt>Makefile</tt> and a main source file implementing
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the basic derived plugin class.
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You will also find a <tt>README</tt> file there with some initial text, where you
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should fill in actual information about your project.
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A <tt>HISTORY</tt> file is set up with an "Initial revision" entry. As your project
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evolves, you should add the changes here with date and version number.
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<p>
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<tt>newplugin</tt> also creates a copy of the GPL license file <tt>COPYING</tt>,
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assuming that you will release your work under that license. Change this if you
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have other plans.
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<p>
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Add further files and maybe subdirectories to your plugin source directory as
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necessary. Don't forget to adapt the <tt>Makefile</tt> appropriately.
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<hr><h2><a name="The actual implementation">The actual implementation</a></h2>
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<div class="blurb">Use the source, Luke!</div><p>
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A newly initialized plugin doesn't really do very much yet.
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If you <a href="#Loading plugins into VDR">load it into VDR</a> you will find a new
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entry in the main menu, with the same name as your plugin (where the first character
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has been converted to uppercase). There will also be a new entry named "Plugins" in
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the "Setup" menu, which will bring up a list of all loaded plugins, through which you
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can access each plugin's own setup parameters (if it provides any).
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<p>
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To implement actual functionality into your plugin you need to edit the source file
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that was generated as <tt>PLUGINS/src/name.c</tt>. Read the comments in that file
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to see where you can bring in your own code. The following sections of this document
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will walk you through the individual member functions of the plugin class.
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<p>
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Depending on what your plugin shall do, you may or may not need all of the given
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member functions. Except for the <tt>MainMenuEntry()</tt> function they all by default
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return values that will result in no actual functionality. You can either completely
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delete unused functions from your source file, or just leave them as they are.
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If your plugin shall not be accessible through VDR's main menu, simply remove
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(or comment out) the line implementing the <tt>MainMenuEntry()</tt> function.
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<p>
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At the end of the plugin's source file you will find a line that looks like this:
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<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
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VDRPLUGINCREATOR(cPluginHello);
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</pre></td></tr></table><p>
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This is the "magic" hook that allows VDR to actually load the plugin into
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its memory. You don't need to worry about the details behind all this.
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<p>
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If your plugin requires additional source files, simply add them to your plugin's
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source directory and adjust the <tt>Makefile</tt> accordingly.
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<p>
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Header files usually contain preprocessor statements that prevent the same
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file (or rather its contents, to be precise) from being included more than once, like
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<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
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#ifndef __I18N_H
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#define __I18N_H
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...
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#endif //__I18N_H
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</pre></td></tr></table><p>
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The example shown here is the way VDR does this in its core source files.
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It takes the header file's name, converts it to all uppercase, replaces the
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dot with an underline and precedes the whole thing with two underlines.
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The GNU library header files do this pretty much the same way, except that they
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usually precede the name with only one underline (there are exceptions, though).
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<p>
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As long as you make sure that none of your plugin's header files will be named
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like one of VDR's header files, you can use the same method as VDR. However,
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if you want to name a header file like one that is already existing in VDR's
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source (<tt>i18n.h</tt> would be a possible candidate for this), you may want
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to make sure that the macros used here don't clash. How you do this is completely
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up to you. You could, for instance, prepend the macro with a <tt>'P'</tt>, as in
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<tt>P__I18N_H</tt>, or leave out the trailing <tt>_H</tt>, as in <tt>__I18N</tt>,
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or use a completely different way to make sure a header file is included only once.
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<p>
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The 'hello' example that comes with VDR makes use of <a href="#Internationalization">internationalization</a>
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and implements a file named <tt>i18n.h</tt>. To make sure it won't clash with VDR's
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<tt>i18n.h</tt> it uses the macro <tt>_I18N__H</tt> (one underline at the beginning
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and two replacing the dot).
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<hr><h2><a name="Construction and Destruction">Construction and Destruction</a></h2>
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<div class="blurb">What goes up, must come down...</div><p>
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The constructor and destructor of a plugin are defined as
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<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
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cPlugin(void);
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virtual ~cPlugin();
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</pre></td></tr></table><p>
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The <b>constructor</b> shall initialize any member variables the plugin defines, but
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<b>must not access any global structures of VDR</b>.
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It also must not create any threads or other large data structures. These things
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are done in the
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<a href="#Getting started"><tt>Initialize()</tt></a> or
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<a href="#Getting started"><tt>Start()</tt></a>
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function later.
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Constructing a plugin object shall not have any side effects or produce any output,
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since VDR, for instance, has to create the plugin objects in order to get their
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command line help - and after that immediately destroys them again.
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<p>
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The <b>destructor</b> has to clean up any data created by the plugin.
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Any threads the plugin may have created shall be stopped in the
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<a href="#Shutting down"><tt>Stop()</tt></a> function.
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<p>
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Of course, if your plugin doesn't define any member variables that need to be
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initialized (and deleted), you don't need to implement either of these functions.
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<hr><h2><a name="Version number">Version number</a></h2>
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<div class="blurb">Which incarnation is this?</div><p>
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Every plugin must have a version number of its own, which does not necessarily
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have to be in any way related to the VDR version number.
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VDR requests a plugin's version number through a call to the function
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<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
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virtual const char *Version(void) = 0;
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</pre></td></tr></table><p>
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Since this is a "pure" virtual function, any derived plugin class <b>must</b>
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implement it. The returned string should identify this version of the plugin.
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Typically this would be something like "0.0.1", but it may also contain other
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information, like for instance "0.0.1pre2" or the like. The string should only
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be as long as really necessary, and shall not contain the plugin's name itself.
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Here's an example:
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<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
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static const char *VERSION = "0.0.1";
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const char *cPluginHello::Version(void)
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{
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return VERSION;
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}
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</pre></td></tr></table><p>
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Note that the definition of the version number is expected to be located in the
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main source file, and must be written as
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<pre>
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static const char *VERSION = ...
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</pre>
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<p>
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just like shown in the above example. This is a convention that allows the <tt>Makefile</tt>
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to extract the version number when generating the file name for the distribution archive.
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<p>
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A new plugin project should start with version number <tt>0.0.1</tt> and should reach
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version <tt>1.0.0</tt> once it is completely operative and well tested. Following the
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Linux kernel version numbering scheme, versions with <i>even</i> release numbers
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(like <tt>1.0.x</tt>, <tt>1.2.x</tt>, <tt>1.4.x</tt>...) should be stable releases,
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while those with <i>odd</i> release numbers (like <tt>1.1.x</tt>, <tt>1.3.x</tt>,
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<tt>1.5.x</tt>...) are usually considered "under development". The three parts of
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a version number are not limited to single digits, so a version number of <tt>1.2.15</tt>
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would be acceptable.
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|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Description">Description</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">What is it that you do?</div><p>
|
|
|
|
In order to tell the user what exactly a plugin does, it must implement the function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual const char *Description(void) = 0;
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
which returns a short, one line description of the plugin's purpose:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
static const char *DESCRIPTION = "A friendly greeting";
|
|
|
|
virtual const char *Description(void)
|
|
{
|
|
return tr(DESCRIPTION);
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
Note the <tt>tr()</tt> around the <tt>DESCRIPTION</tt>, which allows the description
|
|
to be <a href="#Internationalization">internationalized</a>.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Command line arguments">Command line arguments</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Taking orders</div><p>
|
|
|
|
A VDR plugin can have command line arguments just like any normal program.
|
|
If a plugin wants to react on command line arguments, it needs to implement
|
|
the function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual bool ProcessArgs(int argc, char *argv[]);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
The parameters <tt>argc</tt> and <tt>argv</tt> have exactly the same meaning
|
|
as in a normal C program's <tt>main()</tt> function.
|
|
<tt>argv[0]</tt> contains the name of the plugin (as given in the <b><tt>-P</tt></b>
|
|
option of the <tt>vdr</tt> call).
|
|
<p>
|
|
Each plugin has its own set of command line options, which are totally independent
|
|
from those of any other plugin or VDR itself.
|
|
<p>
|
|
You can use the <tt>getopt()</tt> or <tt>getopt_long()</tt> function to process
|
|
these arguments. As with any normal C program, the strings pointed to by <tt>argv</tt>
|
|
will survive the entire lifetime of the plugin, so it is safe to store pointers to
|
|
these values inside the plugin. Here's an example:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
bool cPluginHello::ProcessArgs(int argc, char *argv[])
|
|
{
|
|
// Implement command line argument processing here if applicable.
|
|
static struct option long_options[] = {
|
|
{ "aaa", required_argument, NULL, 'a' },
|
|
{ "bbb", no_argument, NULL, 'b' },
|
|
{ NULL }
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
int c;
|
|
while ((c = getopt_long(argc, argv, "a:b", long_options, NULL)) != -1) {
|
|
switch (c) {
|
|
case 'a': option_a = optarg;
|
|
break;
|
|
case 'b': option_b = true;
|
|
break;
|
|
default: return false;
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
return true;
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
The return value must be <i>true</i> if all options have been processed
|
|
correctly, or <i>false</i> in case of an error. The first plugin that returns
|
|
<i>false</i> from a call to its <tt>ProcessArgs()</tt> function will cause VDR
|
|
to exit.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Command line help">Command line help</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Tell me about it...</div><p>
|
|
|
|
If a plugin accepts command line options, it should implement the function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual const char *CommandLineHelp(void);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
which will be called if the user enters the <b><tt>-h</tt></b> option when starting VDR.
|
|
The returned string should contain the command line help for this plugin, formatted
|
|
in the same way as done by VDR itself:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
const char *cPluginHello::CommandLineHelp(void)
|
|
{
|
|
// Return a string that describes all known command line options.
|
|
return " -a ABC, --aaa=ABC do something nice with ABC\n"
|
|
" -b, --bbb activate 'plan B'\n";
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
This command line help will be printed directly below VDR's help texts (separated
|
|
by a line indicating the plugin's name, version and description), so if you use the
|
|
same formatting as shown here it will line up nicely.
|
|
Note that all lines should be terminated with a newline character, and should
|
|
be shorter than 80 characters.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Getting started">Getting started</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Let's get ready to rumble!</div><p>
|
|
|
|
If a plugin implements a function that runs in the background (presumably in a
|
|
thread of its own), or wants to make use of <a href="#Internationalization">internationalization</a>,
|
|
it needs to implement one of the functions
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual bool Initialize(void);
|
|
virtual bool Start(void);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
which are called once for each plugin at program startup.
|
|
The difference between these two functions is that <tt>Initialize()</tt> is
|
|
called early at program startup, while <tt>Start()</tt> is called after the primary
|
|
device and user interface has been set up, but before the main program loop is entered.
|
|
Inside the <tt>Start()</tt> function of any plugin it is guaranteed that the <tt>Initialize()</tt>
|
|
functions of all plugins have already been called. For many plugins it probably
|
|
doesn't matter which of these functions they implement, but it may be of importance
|
|
for, e.g., plugins that implement devices. Such plugins should create their cDevice
|
|
derived objects in <tt>Initialize()</tt>, so that other plugins can use them in their
|
|
<tt>Start()</tt> functions.
|
|
<p>
|
|
Inside this function the plugin must set up everything necessary to perform
|
|
its task. This may, for instance, be a thread that collects data from the DVB
|
|
stream, which is later presented to the user via a function that is available
|
|
from the main menu.
|
|
<p>
|
|
A return value of <i>false</i> indicates that something has gone wrong and the
|
|
plugin will not be able to perform its task. In that case, the plugin should
|
|
write a proper error message to the log file. The first plugin that returns
|
|
<i>false</i> from its <tt>Initialize()</tt> or <tt>Start()</tt> function will cause
|
|
VDR to exit.
|
|
<p>
|
|
If the plugin doesn't implement any background functionality or internationalized
|
|
texts, it doesn't need to implement either of these functions.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Shutting down">Shutting down</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Stop it, right there!</div><p>
|
|
|
|
If a plugin performs any background tasks, it shall implement the function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual void Stop(void);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
in which it shall stop them.
|
|
<p>
|
|
The <tt>Stop()</tt> function will only be called if a previous call to the
|
|
<a href="#Getting started"><tt>Start()</tt></a> function of that plugin has
|
|
returned <i>true</i>. The <tt>Stop()</tt> functions are called in the reverse order
|
|
as the <a href="#Getting started"><tt>Start()</tt></a> functions were called.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Logging">Logging</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Traces in the sand...</div><p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
If the plugin should print log messages, you can use <tt>dsyslog()</tt>, <tt>isyslog()</tt> or <tt>esyslog()</tt>.<br>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><tt>dsyslog()</tt> prints the log message only if the log level of vdr is set to 3.
|
|
<li><tt>isyslog()</tt> prints the log message only if the log level of vdr is set to 2 or above.
|
|
<li><tt>esyslog()</tt> prints the log message only if the log level of vdr is set to 1 or above.
|
|
</ul>
|
|
The output of this log is the syslog of the system vdr is running on.
|
|
The logmessage can be formatted like <tt>printf()</tt>, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
esyslog("pluginname: error #%d has occurred", ErrorNumber);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
Note that the log messages will be given as provided, the plugin's name will not
|
|
automatically be added, so make sure your log messages are obvious enough.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Main menu entry">Main menu entry</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Today's special is...</div><p>
|
|
|
|
If the plugin implements a feature that the user shall be able to access
|
|
from VDR's main menu, it needs to implement the function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual const char *MainMenuEntry(void);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
The default implementation returns a <tt>NULL</tt> pointer, which means that
|
|
this plugin will not have an item in the main menu. Here's an example of a
|
|
plugin that will have a main menu item:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
static const char *MAINMENUENTRY = "Hello";
|
|
|
|
const char *cPluginHello::MainMenuEntry(void)
|
|
{
|
|
return tr(MAINMENUENTRY);
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
The menu entries of all plugins will be inserted into VDR's main menu right
|
|
after the <i>Recordings</i> item, in the same sequence as they were given
|
|
in the call to VDR.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="User interaction">User interaction</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">It's showtime!</div><p>
|
|
|
|
If the user selects the main menu entry of a plugin, VDR calls the function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual cOsdObject *MainMenuAction(void);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
which can do one of three things:
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>Return a pointer to a <tt>cOsdMenu</tt> object which will be displayed
|
|
as a submenu of the main menu (just like the <i>Recordings</i> menu, for instance).
|
|
That menu can then implement further functionality and, for instance, could
|
|
eventually start a custom player to replay a file other than a VDR recording.
|
|
<li>Return a pointer to a <tt>cOsdObject</tt> object which will be displayed
|
|
instead of the normal menu. The derived <tt>cOsdObject</tt> can open a
|
|
<a href="#The On Screen Display">raw OSD</a> from within its <tt>Show()</tt>
|
|
function (it should not attempt to do so from within its constructor, since
|
|
at that time the OSD is still in use by the main menu).
|
|
See the 'osddemo' example that comes with VDR for a demonstration of how this
|
|
is done.
|
|
<li>Perform a specific action and return <tt>NULL</tt>. In that case the main menu
|
|
will be closed after calling <tt>MainMenuAction()</tt>.
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<b>
|
|
It is very important that a call to <tt>MainMenuAction()</tt> returns as soon
|
|
as possible! As long as the program stays inside this function, no other user
|
|
interaction is possible. If a specific action takes longer than a few seconds,
|
|
the plugin should launch a separate thread to do this.
|
|
</b>
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Housekeeping">Housekeeping</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Chores, chores...</div><p>
|
|
|
|
From time to time a plugin may want to do some regular tasks, like cleaning
|
|
up some files or other things. In order to do this it can implement the function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual void Housekeeping(void);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
which gets called when VDR is otherwise idle. The intervals between subsequent
|
|
calls to this function are not defined. There may be several hours between two
|
|
calls (if, for instance, there are recordings or replays going on) or they may
|
|
be as close as ten seconds. The only thing that is guaranteed is that there are
|
|
at least ten seconds between two subsequent calls to the <tt>Housekeeping()</tt>
|
|
function of the same plugin.
|
|
<p>
|
|
<b>
|
|
It is very important that a call to <tt>Housekeeping()</tt> returns as soon
|
|
as possible! As long as the program stays inside this function, no other user
|
|
interaction is possible. If a specific action takes longer than a few seconds,
|
|
the plugin should launch a separate thread to do this.
|
|
</b>
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Main thread hook">Main thread hook</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Pushing in...</div><p>
|
|
|
|
Normally a plugin only reacts on user input if directly called through its
|
|
<a href="#Main menu entry">main menu entry</a>, or performs some background
|
|
activity in a separate thread. However, sometimes a plugin may need to do
|
|
something in the context of the main program thread, without being explicitly
|
|
called up by the user. In such a case it can implement the function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual void MainThreadHook(void);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
in which it can do this. This function is called for every plugin once during
|
|
every cycle of VDR's main program loop, which typically happens once every
|
|
second.
|
|
<b>Be very careful when using this function, and make sure you return from it
|
|
as soon as possible! If you spend too much time in this function, the user
|
|
interface performance will become sluggish!</b>
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Activity">Activity</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Now is not a good time!</div><p>
|
|
|
|
If a plugin is running a background task that should be finished before shutting
|
|
down the system, it can implement the function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual cString Active(void);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
which shall return an empty string if it is ok to shut down, and a proper message
|
|
if not:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
cString cDoSomethingPlugin::Active(void)
|
|
{
|
|
if (busy)
|
|
return tr("Doing something");
|
|
return NULL;
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
The message should be short and should indicate what is currently going on.
|
|
It will be presented to the user as a confirmation message, followed by a
|
|
hyphen and a "shut down anyway?" prompt, as in
|
|
<p>
|
|
<b>Doing something - shut down anyway?</b>
|
|
<p>
|
|
All plugins will be queried, and the first one that returns a non empty
|
|
string will cause the confirmation message to be shown. If the user confirms
|
|
the prompt by pressing the "Ok" button, the rest of the plugins will also
|
|
be queried, and further prompts may show up. If all prompts have been confirmed,
|
|
the shutdown will take place. As soon as one prompt is not confirmed, no
|
|
further plugins will be queried and no shutdown will be done.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Wakeup">Wakeup</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Wake me up before you go-go</div><p>
|
|
|
|
If a plugin wants to schedule activity for a later time, or wants to perform
|
|
periodic activity at a certain time at night, and if VDR shall wake up from
|
|
shutdown at that time, the plugin can implement the function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual time_t WakeupTime(void);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
which shall return the time of the next custom wakeup time, or 0 if no wakeup
|
|
is planned. VDR will pass the most recent wakeup time of all plugins, or the next
|
|
timer time, whichever comes first, to the shutdown script. The following sample
|
|
will wake up VDR every night at 1:00:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
time_t MyPlugin::WakeupTime(void)
|
|
{
|
|
time_t Now = time(NULL);
|
|
time_t Time = cTimer::SetTime(Now, cTimer::TimeToInt(100));
|
|
if (Time <= Now)
|
|
Time = cTimer::IncDay(Time, 1);
|
|
return Time;
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
After wakeup, the plugin shall continue to return the wakeup time and shall
|
|
return a string when <tt>Active()</tt> is called at that time, otherwise VDR may shut down
|
|
again instantly. If <tt>WakeupTime()</tt> returns a time that is not in
|
|
the future, the time will be ignored.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Setup parameters">Setup parameters</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Remember me...</div><p>
|
|
|
|
If a plugin requires its own setup parameters, it needs to implement the following
|
|
functions to handle these parameters:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual cMenuSetupPage *SetupMenu(void);
|
|
virtual bool SetupParse(const char *Name, const char *Value);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
The <tt>SetupMenu()</tt> function shall return the plugin's <a href="#The Setup menu"><i>Setup</i> menu</a>
|
|
page, where the user can adjust all the parameters known to this plugin.
|
|
<p>
|
|
<tt>SetupParse()</tt> will be called for each parameter the plugin has
|
|
previously stored in the global setup data (see below). It shall return
|
|
<i>true</i> if the parameter was parsed correctly, <i>false</i> in case of
|
|
an error. If <i>false</i> is returned, an error message will be written to
|
|
the log file (and program execution will continue).
|
|
A possible implementation of <tt>SetupParse()</tt> could look like this:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
bool cPluginHello::SetupParse(const char *Name, const char *Value)
|
|
{
|
|
// Parse your own setup parameters and store their values.
|
|
if (!strcasecmp(Name, "GreetingTime")) GreetingTime = atoi(Value);
|
|
else if (!strcasecmp(Name, "UseAlternateGreeting")) UseAlternateGreeting = atoi(Value);
|
|
else
|
|
return false;
|
|
return true;
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
It is important to make sure that the parameter names are exactly the same as
|
|
used in the <a href="#The Setup menu"><i>Setup</i> menu</a>'s <tt>Store()</tt> function.
|
|
<p>
|
|
The plugin's setup parameters are stored in the same file as VDR's parameters.
|
|
In order to allow each plugin (and VDR itself) to have its own set of parameters,
|
|
the <tt>Name</tt> of each parameter will be preceded with the plugin's
|
|
name, as in
|
|
<p>
|
|
<tt>hello.GreetingTime = 3</tt>
|
|
<p>
|
|
The prefix will be handled by the core VDR setup code, so the individual
|
|
plugins need not worry about this.
|
|
<p>
|
|
To store its values in the global setup, a plugin has to call the function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
void SetupStore(const char *Name, <i>type</i> Value);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
where <tt>Name</tt> is the name of the parameter (<tt>"GreetingTime"</tt> in the above
|
|
example, without the prefix <tt>"hello."</tt>) and <tt>Value</tt> is a simple data type (like
|
|
<tt>char *</tt>, <tt>int</tt> etc).
|
|
Note that this is not a function that the individual plugin class needs to implement!
|
|
<tt>SetupStore()</tt> is a non-virtual member function of the <tt>cPlugin</tt> class.
|
|
<p>
|
|
To remove a parameter from the setup data, call <tt>SetupStore()</tt> with the appropriate
|
|
name and without any value, as in
|
|
<p>
|
|
<tt>SetupStore("GreetingTime");</tt>
|
|
<p>
|
|
The VDR menu "Setup/Plugins" will list all loaded plugins with their name,
|
|
version number and description. Selecting an item in this list will bring up
|
|
the plugin's "Setup" menu if that plugin has implemented the <tt>SetupMenu()</tt>
|
|
function.
|
|
<p>
|
|
Finally, a plugin doesn't have to implement the <tt>SetupMenu()</tt> if it only
|
|
needs setup parameters that are not directly user adjustable. It can use
|
|
<tt>SetupStore()</tt> and <tt>SetupParse()</tt> without presenting these
|
|
parameters to the user.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="The Setup menu">The Setup menu</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Have it your way!</div><p>
|
|
|
|
To implement a <i>Setup</i> menu, a plugin needs to derive a class from
|
|
<tt>cMenuSetupPage</tt> and implement its constructor and the pure virtual
|
|
<tt>Store()</tt> member function:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
int GreetingTime = 3;
|
|
int UseAlternateGreeting = false;
|
|
|
|
class cMenuSetupHello : public cMenuSetupPage {
|
|
private:
|
|
int newGreetingTime;
|
|
int newUseAlternateGreeting;
|
|
protected:
|
|
virtual void Store(void);
|
|
public:
|
|
cMenuSetupHello(void);
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
cMenuSetupHello::cMenuSetupHello(void)
|
|
{
|
|
newGreetingTime = GreetingTime;
|
|
newUseAlternateGreeting = UseAlternateGreeting;
|
|
Add(new cMenuEditIntItem( tr("Greeting time (s)"), &newGreetingTime));
|
|
Add(new cMenuEditBoolItem(tr("Use alternate greeting"), &newUseAlternateGreeting));
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
void cMenuSetupHello::Store(void)
|
|
{
|
|
SetupStore("GreetingTime", GreetingTime = newGreetingTime);
|
|
SetupStore("UseAlternateGreeting", UseAlternateGreeting = newUseAlternateGreeting);
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
In this example we have two global setup parameters (<tt>GreetingTime</tt> and <tt>UseAlternateGreeting</tt>).
|
|
The constructor initializes two private members with the values of these parameters, so
|
|
that the <i>Setup</i> menu can work with temporary copies (in order to discard any changes
|
|
if the user doesn't confirm them by pressing the "Ok" button).
|
|
After this the constructor adds the appropriate menu items, using internationalized texts
|
|
and the addresses of the temporary variables. That's all there is to initialize a <i>Setup</i>
|
|
menu - the rest will be done by the core VDR code.
|
|
<p>
|
|
Once the user has pressed the "Ok" button to confirm the changes, the <tt>Store()</tt> function will
|
|
be called, in which all setup parameters must be actually stored in VDR's global setup data.
|
|
This is done by calling the <tt>SetupStore()</tt> function for each of the parameters.
|
|
The <i>Name</i> string given here will be used to identify the parameter in VDR's
|
|
<tt>setup.conf</tt> file, and will be automatically prepended with the plugin's name.
|
|
<p>
|
|
Note that in this small example the new values of the parameters are copied into the
|
|
global variables within each <tt>SetupStore()</tt> call. This is not mandatory, however.
|
|
You can first assign the temporary values to the global variables and then do the
|
|
<tt>SetupStore()</tt> calls, or you can define a class or struct that contains all
|
|
your setup parameters and use that one to copy all parameters with one single statement
|
|
(like VDR does with its cSetup class).
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><modified><a name="Additional files">Additional files</a></modified></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">I want my own stuff!</div><p>
|
|
|
|
<modified>
|
|
There may be situations where a plugin requires files of its own. While the plugin is
|
|
free to store such files anywhere it sees fit, it might be a good idea to put them in a common
|
|
place, preferably where such data already exists.
|
|
</modified>
|
|
<p>
|
|
<modified>
|
|
<i>configuration files</i>, maybe for data that can't be stored in the simple
|
|
<a href="#Setup parameters">setup parameters</a> of VDR, or maybe because it needs to
|
|
launch other programs that simply need a separate configuration file.
|
|
</modified>
|
|
<p>
|
|
<modified>
|
|
<i>cache files</i>, to store data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data
|
|
that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of
|
|
original values that are stored elsewhere.
|
|
</modified>
|
|
<p>
|
|
<modified>
|
|
<i>resource files</i>, for providing additional files, like pictures, movie clips or channel logos.
|
|
</modified>
|
|
<p>
|
|
<modified>
|
|
Threfore VDR provides the functions
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
<modified>
|
|
const char *ConfigDirectory(const char *PluginName = NULL);
|
|
const char *CacheDirectory(const char *PluginName = NULL);
|
|
const char *ResourceDirectory(const char *PluginName = NULL);
|
|
</modified>
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
<modified>
|
|
each of which returns a string containing the directory that VDR uses for its own
|
|
files (defined through the options in the call to VDR), extended by
|
|
</modified>
|
|
<tt>"/plugins"</tt>. So assuming the VDR configuration directory is <tt>/video</tt>
|
|
(the default if no <tt><b>-c</b></tt> or <tt><b>-v</b></tt> option is given),
|
|
a call to <tt>ConfigDirectory()</tt> will return <tt>/video/plugins</tt>. The first
|
|
call to <tt>ConfigDirectory()</tt> will automatically make sure that the <tt>plugins</tt>
|
|
subdirectory will exist. If, for some reason, this cannot be achieved, <tt>NULL</tt>
|
|
will be returned.
|
|
<modified>
|
|
The behavoir of <tt>CacheDirectory()</tt> and <tt>ResourceDirectory()</tt> is similar.
|
|
</modified>
|
|
<p>
|
|
The additional <tt>plugins</tt> directory is used to keep files from plugins apart
|
|
from those of VDR itself, making sure there will be no name clashes. If a plugin
|
|
<modified>
|
|
needs only one extra file, it is suggested that this file be named <tt>name.*</tt>,
|
|
where <i>name</i> shall be the name of the plugin.
|
|
</modified>
|
|
<p>
|
|
If a plugin needs more than one such file, it is suggested that the plugin stores
|
|
these in a subdirectory of its own, named after the plugin. To easily get such a name
|
|
<modified>
|
|
the functions can be given an additional string that will be appended to the returned
|
|
directory name, as in
|
|
</modified>
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
const char *MyConfigDir = ConfigDirectory(Name());
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
where <tt>Name()</tt> is the member function of the plugin class that returns the
|
|
plugin's name. Again, VDR will make sure that the requested directory will exist
|
|
(or return <tt>NULL</tt> in case of an error).
|
|
<p>
|
|
<b>
|
|
<modified>
|
|
The returned strings are statically allocated and will be overwritten by subsequent calls!
|
|
</modified>
|
|
</b>
|
|
<p>
|
|
<modified>
|
|
The <tt>ConfigDirectory()</tt>, <tt>CacheDirectory()</tt> and <tt>ResourceDirectory()</tt>
|
|
functions are static member functions of the <tt>cPlugin</tt> class. This allows them to be
|
|
called even from outside any member function of the derived plugin class, by writing
|
|
</modified>
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
const char *MyConfigDir = cPlugin::ConfigDirectory();
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Internationalization">Internationalization</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Welcome to Babylon!</div><p>
|
|
|
|
If a plugin displays texts to the user, it should prepare for internationalization
|
|
of these texts. All that is necessary for this is to mark every text that is
|
|
presented to the user as translatable, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
const char *s = tr("Hello world!");
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
The text given here must be the English version, and the returned pointer is either
|
|
a translated version (if available) or the original string.
|
|
Texts are searched for in the domain registered for this plugin.
|
|
If a plugin wants to make use of texts defined by the core VDR code, it can use
|
|
the special <tt>trVDR()</tt> macro to mark these texts without having them
|
|
appear in its own translation file.
|
|
<p>
|
|
Sometimes texts are stored in an array, in which case they need to be marked
|
|
differently, using the trNOOP() macro. The actual translation is then done
|
|
when such a text is used, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
const char *Texts = {
|
|
trNOOP("First text"),
|
|
trNOOP("Second text"),
|
|
trNOOP("Third one")
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
|
|
MyFunc(tr(Texts[i]));
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The system VDR is running on may use a character encoding where a single character
|
|
(or <i>symbol</i>) consists of more than one byte (UTF-8, as opposed to, for instance,
|
|
ISO8859-1, where every character is represented by a single byte in memory).
|
|
In order to make sure a plugin works regardless of the character encoding the current
|
|
system uses, the VDR core code provides several functions and macros that allow accessing
|
|
text strings transparently without knowing whether this is a single or multi byte
|
|
character set. The names of these functions and macros are all of the form <tt>Utf8...()</tt>,
|
|
and are defined in <tt>VDR/tools.h</tt>.
|
|
Most of the time a plugin doesn't need to care about this, but when it comes to
|
|
handling individual characters these functions may come in handy.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Custom services">Custom services</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">What can I do for you?</div><p>
|
|
|
|
In some situations, two plugins may want to communicate directly, talking about things
|
|
that VDR doesn't handle itself. For example, a plugin may want to use features
|
|
that some other plugin offers, or it may want to inform other plugins about important
|
|
things it does. To receive requests or messages, a plugin can implement the
|
|
following function:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual bool Service(const char *Id, void *Data = NULL);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
<tt>Id</tt> is a unique identification string that identifies the service protocol.
|
|
To avoid collisions, the string should contain a service name, the plugin name (unless
|
|
the service is not related to a single plugin) and a protocol version number.
|
|
<tt>Data</tt> points to a custom data structure. For each id string
|
|
there should be a specification that describes the format of the data
|
|
structure, and any change to the format should be reflected by a change
|
|
of the id string.
|
|
<p>
|
|
The function shall return <i>true</i> for any service id string it handles, and <i>false</i>
|
|
otherwise. The plugins have to agree in which situations the service
|
|
may be called, for example whether the service may be called from every thread, or
|
|
just from the main thread. A possible implementation could look like this:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
struct Hello_SetGreetingTime_v1_0 {
|
|
int NewGreetingTime;
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
bool cPluginHello::Service(const char *Id, void *Data)
|
|
{
|
|
if (strcmp(Id, "Hello-SetGreetingTime-v1.0") == 0) {
|
|
if (Data == NULL)
|
|
return true;
|
|
GreetingTime = ((Hello_SetGreetingTime_v1_0*)Data)->NewGreetingTime;
|
|
return true;
|
|
}
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
Plugins should expect to be called with <tt>Data</tt> set to <tt>NULL</tt> and may use
|
|
this as a 'service supported' check without performing any actions.
|
|
<p>
|
|
To send messages to, or request services from a specific plugin, one plugin can directly
|
|
call another plugin's service function:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
Hello_SetGreetingTime_v1_0 hellodata;
|
|
hellodata.NewGreetingTime = 3;
|
|
cPlugin *Plugin = cPluginManager::GetPlugin("hello");
|
|
if (Plugin)
|
|
Plugin->Service("Hello-SetGreetingTime-v1.0", >hellodata);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
To send messages to, or request services from some plugin that offers the protocol, a
|
|
plugin can call the function <tt>cPluginManager::CallFirstService()</tt>. This function
|
|
will send the request to all plugins until one plugin handles it.
|
|
The function returns a pointer to the plugin that handled the request, or <tt>NULL</tt>
|
|
if no plugin handled it.
|
|
<p>
|
|
To send a message to all plugins, a plugin can call the function
|
|
<tt>cPluginManager::CallAllServices()</tt>. This function returns <tt>true</tt> if
|
|
any plugin handled the request, or <tt>false</tt> if no plugin handled the request.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="SVDRP commands">SVDRP commands</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations</div><p>
|
|
|
|
A plugin can implement its own SVDRP commands through the two functions
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual const char **SVDRPHelpPages(void);
|
|
virtual cString SVDRPCommand(const char *Cmd, const char *Option, int &ReplyCode);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
The <tt>SVDRPHelpPages()</tt> function must return a pointer to a list of help
|
|
strings for all of the plugin's SVDRP commands, like this
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
const char **cPluginSvdrpdemo::SVDRPHelpPages(void)
|
|
{
|
|
static const char *HelpPages[] = {
|
|
"DATE\n"
|
|
" Print the current date.",
|
|
"TIME [ raw ]\n"
|
|
" Print the current time.\n"
|
|
" If the optional keyword 'raw' is given, the result will be the\n"
|
|
" raw time_t data.",
|
|
NULL
|
|
};
|
|
return HelpPages;
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
Note that the first line of each entry contains the actual command and its
|
|
parameters, while the following lines explain what the command does and what
|
|
the parameters (if any) mean. All lines of the explanation shall be indented
|
|
by exactly 4 blanks (no tabs), and none of them shall be longer than 79 characters
|
|
(to avoid messy output on 80 character wide terminals). The last entry in the
|
|
list must be NULL.
|
|
<p>
|
|
The command names <tt>HELP</tt> and <tt>MAIN</tt> are reserved and cannot
|
|
be used by a plugin.
|
|
<p>
|
|
The actual processing of SVDRP commands for a plugin is done in its
|
|
<tt>SVDRPCommand()</tt> function.
|
|
Here's an example of such a function, which implements the commands advertised in
|
|
the above help texts:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
cString cPluginSvdrpdemo::SVDRPCommand(const char *Command, const char *Option, int &ReplyCode)
|
|
{
|
|
if (strcasecmp(Command, "DATE") == 0) {
|
|
// we use the default reply code here
|
|
return DateString(time(NULL));
|
|
}
|
|
else if (strcasecmp(Command, "TIME") == 0) {
|
|
ReplyCode = 901;
|
|
if (*Option) {
|
|
if (strcasecmp(Option, "RAW") == 0)
|
|
return cString::sprintf("%ld\nThis is the number of seconds since the epoch\n"
|
|
"and a demo of a multi-line reply", time(NULL));
|
|
else {
|
|
ReplyCode = 504;
|
|
return cString::sprintf("Unknown option: \"%s\"", Option);
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
return TimeString(time(NULL));
|
|
}
|
|
return NULL;
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
The command is given to this function in the <tt>Command</tt> parameter, and any optional parameters
|
|
are given in the <tt>Option</tt> string. <tt>Command</tt> always points to an actual, non-empty string, while
|
|
<tt>Option</tt> may point to an empty string (it is never NULL, though).
|
|
<p>
|
|
If a plugin doesn't implement the given command, it shall return NULL, and VDR will
|
|
automatically issue a proper error message. If it encounters an unknown or invalid
|
|
option, it shall set the <tt>ReplyCode</tt> to one of the codes defined in <tt>VDR/svdrp.c</tt>
|
|
and return a proper error message.
|
|
<p>
|
|
The default <tt>ReplyCode</tt> is 900, and if the plugin doesn't care about reply
|
|
codes, it doesn't have to set it to anything else (unless there is an error, of
|
|
course). The codes in the range 901..999 are reserved for plugins that want
|
|
to use special reply codes. Any plugin can use any of these values and doesn't
|
|
have to coordinate this with any other plugin, since the caller knows which
|
|
plugin was called, and will therefore process the values according to the
|
|
particular plugin's definitions.
|
|
<p>
|
|
The returned string may consist of several lines, separated by the newline character
|
|
('<tt>\n</tt>'). Each of these lines will be preceded with the <tt>ReplyCode</tt>
|
|
when presenting them to the caller, and the continuation character ('<tt>-</tt>')
|
|
will be set for all but the last one.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Loading plugins into VDR">Loading plugins into VDR</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Saddling up!</div><p>
|
|
|
|
Plugins are loaded into VDR using the command line option <b><tt>-P</tt></b>, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
vdr -Phello
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
If the plugin accepts command line options, they are given as part of the argument
|
|
to the <b><tt>-P</tt></b> option, which then has to be enclosed in quotes:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
vdr -P"hello -a abc -b"
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
Any number of plugins can be loaded this way, each with its own <b><tt>-P</tt></b> option:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
vdr -P"hello -a abc -b" -Pdvd -Pmp3
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
If you are not starting VDR from the VDR source directory (and thus your plugins
|
|
cannot be found at their default location) you need to tell VDR the location of
|
|
the plugins through the <b><tt>-L</tt></b> option:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
vdr -L/usr/lib/vdr -Phello
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
There can be any number of <b><tt>-L</tt></b> options, and each of them will apply to the
|
|
<b><tt>-P</tt></b> options following it.
|
|
<p>
|
|
When started with the <b><tt>-h</tt></b> or <b><tt>-V</tt></b> option (for <i>help</i>
|
|
or <i>version</i> information, respectively), VDR will automatically load all plugins
|
|
in the default or given directory that match the VDR plugin
|
|
<a href="#The plugin directory structure">naming convention</a>,
|
|
and display their help and/or version information in addition to its own output.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Building the distribution package">Building the distribution package</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Let's get this show on the road!</div><p>
|
|
|
|
If you want to make your plugin available to other VDR users, you'll need to
|
|
make a package that can be easily distributed.
|
|
The <tt>Makefile</tt> that has been created by the call to
|
|
<a href="#Initializing a new plugin directory"><tt>newplugin</tt></a>
|
|
provides the target <tt>dist</tt>, which does this for you.
|
|
<p>
|
|
Simply change into your source directory and execute <tt>make dist</tt>:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
cd VDR/PLUGINS/src/hello
|
|
make dist
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
After this you should find a file named like
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
vdr-hello-0.0.1.tgz
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
in your source directory, where <tt>hello</tt> will be replaced with your actual
|
|
plugin's name, and <tt>0.0.1</tt> will be your plugin's current version number.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h1 class="center"><a name="Part II - The Internal Interface">Part II - The Internal Interface</a></h1>
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Status monitor">Status monitor</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">A piece of the action</div><p>
|
|
|
|
If a plugin wants to get informed on various events in VDR, it can derive a class from
|
|
<tt>cStatus</tt>, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
#include <vdr/status.h>
|
|
|
|
class cMyStatusMonitor : public cStatus {
|
|
protected:
|
|
virtual void ChannelSwitch(const cDevice *Device, int ChannelNumber<modified>, bool LiveView</modified>);
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
void cMyStatusMonitor::ChannelSwitch(const cDevice *Device, int ChannelNumber<modified>, bool LiveView</modified>)
|
|
{
|
|
if (ChannelNumber)
|
|
dsyslog("channel switched to %d on DVB %d", ChannelNumber, Device->CardIndex());
|
|
else
|
|
dsyslog("about to switch channel on DVB %d", Device->CardIndex());
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
An object of this class will be informed whenever the channel is switched on one of
|
|
the DVB devices. It could be used in a plugin like this:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
#include <vdr/plugin.h>
|
|
|
|
class cPluginStatus : public cPlugin {
|
|
private:
|
|
cMyStatusMonitor *statusMonitor;
|
|
public:
|
|
cPluginStatus(void);
|
|
virtual ~cPluginStatus();
|
|
...
|
|
virtual bool Start(void);
|
|
...
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
cPluginStatus::cPluginStatus(void)
|
|
{
|
|
statusMonitor = NULL;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
cPluginStatus::~cPluginStatus()
|
|
{
|
|
delete statusMonitor;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
bool cPluginStatus::Start(void)
|
|
{
|
|
statusMonitor = new cMyStatusMonitor;
|
|
return true;
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
Note that the actual object is created in the <tt>Start()</tt> function, not in the
|
|
constructor! It is also important to delete the object in the destructor, in order to
|
|
avoid memory leaks.
|
|
<p>
|
|
A Plugin can implement any number of <tt>cStatus</tt> derived objects, and once
|
|
the plugin has been started it may create and delete them as necessary.
|
|
No further action apart from creating an object derived from <tt>cStatus</tt>
|
|
is necessary. VDR will automatically hook it into a list of status monitors, with
|
|
their individual virtual member functions being called in the same sequence as the
|
|
objects were created.
|
|
<p>
|
|
See the file <tt>status.h</tt> for detailed information on which status monitor
|
|
member functions are available in <tt>cStatus</tt>. You only need to implement
|
|
the functions you actually want to use.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Players">Players</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Play it again, Sam!</div><p>
|
|
|
|
Implementing a player is a two step process.
|
|
First you need the actual player class, which is derived from the abstract <tt>cPlayer</tt>:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
#include <vdr/player.h>
|
|
|
|
class cMyPlayer : public cPlayer {
|
|
protected:
|
|
virtual void Activate(bool On);
|
|
public:
|
|
cMyPlayer(void);
|
|
virtual ~cMyPlayer();
|
|
};
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
What exactly you do in this class is entirely up to you. If you want to run a separate
|
|
thread which, e.g., reads data from a file, you can additionally derive your class from
|
|
<tt>cThread</tt> and implement the necessary functionality:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
#include <vdr/player.h>
|
|
|
|
class cMyPlayer : public cPlayer, cThread {
|
|
protected:
|
|
virtual void Activate(bool On);
|
|
virtual void Action(void);
|
|
public:
|
|
cMyPlayer(void);
|
|
virtual ~cMyPlayer();
|
|
};
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
Take a look at the files <tt>player.h</tt> and <tt>dvbplayer.c</tt> to see how VDR implements
|
|
its own player for the VDR recordings.
|
|
<p>
|
|
To play the actual data, the player needs to call its member function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
int PlayPes(const uchar *Data, int Length, bool VideoOnly);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
where <tt>Data</tt> points to a block of <tt>Length</tt> bytes of a PES data
|
|
stream containing any combination of video, audio or Dolby tracks. Which audio
|
|
or Dolby track will actually be played is controlled by the device the player
|
|
is attached to. There are no prerequisites regarding the length or alignment of an
|
|
individual block of data. The sum of all blocks must simply result in the
|
|
desired data stream, and it must be delivered fast enough so that the
|
|
DVB device doesn't run out of data.
|
|
To avoid busy loops the player should call its member function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
bool DevicePoll(cPoller &Poller, int TimeoutMs = 0);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
to determine whether the device is ready for further data.
|
|
<p>
|
|
By default all audio track handling is done by the device a player is
|
|
attached to.
|
|
If the player can provide more than a single audio track, and has special
|
|
requirements in order to set a given track, it can implement the
|
|
following function to allow the device to set a specific track:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual void SetAudioTrack(eTrackType Type, const tTrackId *TrackId)
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
A player that has special requirements about audio tracks should announce its
|
|
available audio tracks by calling
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
bool DeviceSetAvailableTrack(eTrackType Type, int Index, uint16_t Id, const char *Language = NULL, const char *Description = NULL)
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
See <tt>device.h</tt> for details about the parameters for track handling.
|
|
<p>
|
|
The second part needed here is a control object that receives user input from the main
|
|
program loop and reacts on this by telling the player what to do:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
#include <vdr/player.h>
|
|
|
|
class cMyControl : public cControl {
|
|
private:
|
|
cMyPlayer *player;
|
|
public:
|
|
cMyControl(void);
|
|
virtual ~cMyControl();
|
|
virtual void Hide(void);
|
|
virtual cOsdObject *GetInfo(void);
|
|
virtual eOSState ProcessKey(eKeys Key);
|
|
};
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
<tt>cMyControl</tt> shall create an object of type <tt>cMyPlayer</tt> and
|
|
hand over a pointer to it to the <tt>cControl</tt> base class, so that it
|
|
can be later attached to the primary DVB device:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
cMyControl::cMyControl(void)
|
|
:cControl(player = new cMyPlayer)
|
|
{
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
<tt>cMyControl</tt> will receive the user's key presses through the <tt>ProcessKey()</tt>
|
|
function. It will get all button presses, except for the volume control buttons
|
|
(<tt>kVolUp</tt>, <tt>kVolDn</tt>, <tt>kMute</tt>), the power button (<tt>kPower</tt>)
|
|
and the menu button (<tt>kMenu</tt>). If the user has not pressed a button for a while
|
|
(which is typically in the area of about one second), <tt>ProcessKey()</tt> will be called
|
|
with <tt>kNone</tt>, so that the <tt>cMyControl</tt> gets a chance to check whether its
|
|
player is still active. Once the player has become inactive (because the user has decided
|
|
to stop it or the DVB device has detached it), <tt>ProcessKey()</tt> must return <tt>osEnd</tt>
|
|
to make the main program loop shut down the player control.
|
|
<p>
|
|
A derived <tt>cControl</tt> <b>must</b> implement the <tt>Hide()</tt> function, in which
|
|
it has to hide itself from the OSD, in case it uses it. <tt>Hide()</tt> may be called at
|
|
any time, and it may be called even if the <tt>cControl</tt> is not visible at the moment.
|
|
<p>
|
|
The <tt>GetInfo()</tt> function is called when the user presses the <tt>Info</tt> button,
|
|
and shall return a pointer to a <tt>cOsdObject</tt> that contains information
|
|
about the currently played programme. The caller takes ownership of the returned
|
|
pointer and will delete it when it is no longer used. If no information is available,
|
|
<tt>NULL</tt> shall be returned.
|
|
<p>
|
|
Finally, to get things going, a plugin that implements a player (and the surrounding
|
|
infrastructure like displaying a list of playable stuff etc) simply has to call the
|
|
static function <tt>cControl::Launch()</tt> with the player control object, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
cControl::Launch(new cMyControl);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
Ownership of the <tt>MyControl</tt> object is handed over to the VDR core code,
|
|
so the plugin should not keep a pointer to it, because VDR will destroy the object
|
|
whenever it sees fit (for instance because a recording shall start that needs to
|
|
use the primary DVB device, or the user decides to start a different replay).
|
|
<p>
|
|
The <tt>cPlayer</tt> class has a member function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
void DeviceStillPicture(const uchar *Data, int Length);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
which can be called to display a still picture. VDR uses this function when handling
|
|
its editing marks. A special case of a "player" might use this function to implement
|
|
a "picture viewer".
|
|
<p>
|
|
For detailed information on how to implement your own player, please take a look
|
|
at VDR's <tt>cDvbPlayer</tt> and <tt>cDvbPlayerControl</tt> classes.
|
|
<p>
|
|
<b>User interface</b>
|
|
<p>
|
|
In order for a new player to nicely "blend in" to the overall VDR appearance it
|
|
is recommended that it implements the same functionality with the same keys as the
|
|
VDR player does (as far as this is possible and makes sense). The main points to
|
|
consider here are
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>The <i>Ok</i> button shall bring up some display that indicates what is currently
|
|
being played, and what the status of this replay session is. As an alternative (for
|
|
instance with a DVD player) it may display a player specific menu, from which the
|
|
user can select certain options.
|
|
<li>The <i>Up</i>, <i>Down</i>, <i>Left</i> and <i>Right</i> buttons shall control
|
|
<i>Play</i>, <i>Pause</i>, <i>Fast Rewind</i> and <i>Fast Forward</i>, respectively
|
|
(provided that this particular player can implement these functions) if the player
|
|
is not currently showing any menu. If there is a menu, they shall allow the user
|
|
to navigate in the menu. The dedicated <i>Play</i>, <i>Pause</i>, <i>FastRew</i>
|
|
and <i>FastFwd</i> keys shall always result in their specific functionality.
|
|
<li>The <i>Green</i> and <i>Yellow</i> buttons shall skip back- and forward by an
|
|
amount of time suitable for this player (provided that this particular player can
|
|
implement these functions).
|
|
<li>The <i>Blue</i> and <i>Stop</i> button shall immediately stop the replay session.
|
|
</ul>
|
|
Of course, these are only suggestions which should make it easier for VDR users to
|
|
enjoy additional players, since they will be able to control them with actions
|
|
that they already know. If you absolutely want to do things differently, just go
|
|
ahead - it's your show...
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Receivers">Receivers</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Tapping into the stream...</div><p>
|
|
|
|
In order to receive any kind of data from a <tt>cDevice</tt>, a plugin must set up an
|
|
object derived from the <tt>cReceiver</tt> class:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
#include <vdr/receiver.h>
|
|
|
|
class cMyReceiver : public cReceiver, cThread {
|
|
protected:
|
|
virtual void Activate(bool On);
|
|
virtual void Receive(uchar *Data, int Length);
|
|
public:
|
|
cMyReceiver(int Pid);
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
cMyReceiver::cMyReceiver(int Pid)
|
|
:cReceiver(tChannelID(), -1, Pid)
|
|
{
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
cMyReceiver::~cMyReceiver()
|
|
{
|
|
cReceiver::Detach();
|
|
...
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
void cMyReceiver::Activate(bool On)
|
|
{
|
|
// start your own thread for processing the received data
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
void cMyReceiver::Receive(uchar *Data, int Length)
|
|
{
|
|
// buffer the data for processing in a separate thread
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
See the comments in <tt>VDR/receiver.h</tt> for details about the various
|
|
member functions of <tt>cReceiver</tt>.
|
|
<p>
|
|
The above example sets up a receiver that wants to receive data from only one
|
|
PID (for example the Teletext PID). In order to not interfere with other recording
|
|
operations, it sets its priority to <tt>-1</tt> (any negative value will allow
|
|
a <tt>cReceiver</tt> to be detached from its <tt>cDevice</tt> at any time
|
|
<modified>in favor of a timer recording or live viewing</modified>).
|
|
<p>
|
|
Once a <tt>cReceiver</tt> has been created, it needs to be <i>attached</i> to
|
|
a <tt>cDevice</tt>:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
cMyReceiver *Receiver = new cMyReceiver(123);
|
|
|
|
cDevice::ActualDevice()->AttachReceiver(Receiver);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
Note the use of <tt>cDevice::ActualDevice()</tt> here, which makes sure that
|
|
the receiver is attached to the device that actually receives the current live
|
|
video stream (this may be different from the primary device in case of <i>Transfer
|
|
Mode</i>).
|
|
<p>
|
|
<modified>
|
|
The <tt>cReceiver</tt> must be detached from its device before it is deleted.
|
|
</modified>
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Filters">Filters</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">A Fistful of Data</div><p>
|
|
|
|
If you want to receive section data you have to implement a derived <tt>cFilter</tt>
|
|
class which at least implements the <tt>Process()</tt> function and a constructor
|
|
that sets the (initial) filter parameters:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
#include <vdr/filter.h>
|
|
|
|
class cMyFilter : public cFilter {
|
|
protected:
|
|
virtual void Process(u_short Pid, u_char Tid, const u_char *Data, int Length);
|
|
public:
|
|
cMyFilter(void);
|
|
...
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
cMyFilter::cMyFilter(void)
|
|
{
|
|
Set(0x14, 0x70); // TDT
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
void cMyFilter::Process(u_short Pid, u_char Tid, const u_char *Data, int Length)
|
|
{
|
|
// do something with the data here
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
An instance of such a filter needs to be attached to the device from
|
|
which it shall receive data, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
cMyFilter *Filter = new cMyFilter();
|
|
|
|
cDevice::ActualDevice()->AttachFilter(Filter);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
If the <tt>cFilter</tt> isn't needed any more, it may simply be <i>deleted</i>
|
|
and will automatically detach itself from the <tt>cDevice</tt>.
|
|
<p>
|
|
See VDR/eit.c or VDR/pat.c to learn how to process filter data.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="The On Screen Display">The On Screen Display</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Window to the world</div><p>
|
|
|
|
If a plugin needs to have total control over the OSD, it can call the
|
|
static function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
#include <vdr/osd.h>
|
|
|
|
cOsd *MyOsd = cOsdProvider::NewOsd(x, y);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
where <tt>x</tt> and <tt>y</tt> are the coordinates of the upper left corner
|
|
of the OSD area on the screen. Such an OSD doesn't display anything
|
|
yet, so you need to at least call the function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
tArea Area = { 0, 0, 100, 100, 4 };
|
|
MyOsd->SetAreas(&Area, 1);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
to define an actual OSD drawing area (see VDR/osd.h for the declarations
|
|
of these functions, and VDR/skinsttng.c to see how VDR opens the OSD and sets up
|
|
its windows and color depths).
|
|
<p>
|
|
Theoretically the OSD supports a full screen drawing area, with 32 bit color
|
|
depth. However, the actual OSD device in use may not be able to provide the
|
|
full area or color depth, maybe because of lack of OSD memory or other restrictions.
|
|
A plugin that uses the OSD should therefore test whether the OSD is able to
|
|
provide the requested functionality, and should offer alternate color depths
|
|
to allow a less powerful OSD implementation to still work reasonably.
|
|
Since it is often not really necessary to have hundreds or thousands of colors
|
|
all over the OSD area, a plugin can divide the total drawing area into several
|
|
sub-areas with different color depths and separate color palettes, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
tArea Area = { 0, 0, 99, 99, 4 };
|
|
if (osd->CanHandleAreas(Area, 1) == oeOk)
|
|
osd->SetAreas(&Area, 1);
|
|
else {
|
|
tArea Areas[] = { { 0, 0, 99, 19, 2 },
|
|
{ 0, 20, 99, 79, 2 },
|
|
{ 0, 80, 99, 99, 4 }
|
|
};
|
|
osd->SetAreas(Areas, sizeof(Areas) / sizeof(tArea));
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
In this example an OSD with 100 by 100 pixel and 4 bit color depth shall
|
|
be opened, so at first a single area with the full required resolution
|
|
is set up and <tt>CanHandleAreas()</tt> is called with it. If the result indicates
|
|
that the OSD will be able to handle this drawing area, a call to <tt>SetAreas()</tt>
|
|
actually sets it. If a single area with that resolution can't be handled,
|
|
a second attempt is made in which the total drawing area is divided into
|
|
three horizontal stripes, two of which use only 2 bit color depth (because
|
|
the objects drawn in there can be displayed with 4 colors) while the third
|
|
one still requests 4 bit color depth.
|
|
<p>
|
|
Note that a plugin should always at first request a single drawing area
|
|
with the full required resolution. Only if this fails shall it use alternate
|
|
areas. Drawing areas are always rectangular and may not overlap (but do not need
|
|
to be adjacent).
|
|
<p>
|
|
Special consideration may have to be given to color usage if the OSD provides
|
|
8bpp (256 colors). In that case, fonts may be drawn using <i>anti-aliasing</i>,
|
|
which requires several blended color values between the foreground and background
|
|
color. In order to not use up the whole color palette for a single color
|
|
combination (and thus be unable to draw any other colors at all), it may be
|
|
useful to call
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
osd->SetAntiAliasGranularity();
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
which allows the system to evenly distribute the palette entries to the various
|
|
color combinations (see <tt>VDR/osd.h</tt> for details).
|
|
<p>
|
|
Directly accessing the OSD is only allowed from the foreground thread, which
|
|
restricts this to a <tt>cOsdObject</tt> returned from the plugin's <tt>MainMenuAction()</tt>
|
|
function, or any of the skin classes a plugin might implement.
|
|
<p>
|
|
If a plugin runs a separate thread and wants to issue a message directly from
|
|
within that tread, it can call
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
int cSkins::QueueMessage(eMessageType Type, const char *s, int Seconds = 0, int Timeout = 0);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
to queue that message for display. See <tt>VDR/skins.h</tt> for details.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Skins">Skins</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">The emperor's new clothes</div><p>
|
|
|
|
The way VDR displays its menus to the user is implemented through <i>skins</i>.
|
|
A particular skin provides several functions that return objects to be used
|
|
for displaying a specific part of the OSD, like a menu, the channel display
|
|
or the volume bar.
|
|
<p>
|
|
By default VDR offers the <i>Classic</i> and the <i>ST:TNG Panels</i> skins,
|
|
which can be selected through Setup/OSD/Skin. A plugin can implement an
|
|
arbitrary skin of its own by doing something similar to what's done in
|
|
<tt>VDR/skinclassic.c</tt>.
|
|
<p>
|
|
The first step in implementing a new skin is to derive a class from <tt>cSkin</tt>
|
|
that provides the handling objects necessary to do the actual work:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
#include <vdr/skins.h>
|
|
|
|
class cMySkin : public cSkin {
|
|
public:
|
|
cMySkin(void);
|
|
virtual const char *Description(void);
|
|
virtual cSkinDisplayChannel *DisplayChannel(bool WithInfo);
|
|
virtual cSkinDisplayMenu *DisplayMenu(void);
|
|
virtual cSkinDisplayReplay *DisplayReplay(bool ModeOnly);
|
|
virtual cSkinDisplayVolume *DisplayVolume(void);
|
|
virtual cSkinDisplayTracks *DisplayTracks(const char *Title, int NumTracks, const char * const *Tracks);
|
|
virtual cSkinDisplayMessage *DisplayMessage(void);
|
|
};
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
See the comments in <tt>VDR/skins.h</tt> for details. <tt>VDR/skinclassic.[hc]</tt>
|
|
can be used as an example for how to implement all the necessary classes and
|
|
functions to compose a complete skin. See also the chapter about <a href="#Themes">themes</a>
|
|
if you want to make the colors used by your skin configurable.
|
|
<p>
|
|
To add your new skin to the list of skins available to the user in Setup/OSD/Skin,
|
|
all you need to do is create a new object of your skin class, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
new cMySkin;
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
in the <a href="#Getting started"><tt>Start()</tt></a> function of your plugin.
|
|
Do not delete this object, it will be automatically deleted when the program ends.
|
|
<p>
|
|
In order to be able to easily identify plugins that implement a skin it is recommended
|
|
that the name of such a plugin should be
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
skinxyz
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
where <tt>xyz</tt> is the actual name of the skin.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Themes">Themes</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Eye of the beholder...</div><p>
|
|
|
|
A <i>theme</i> is a collection of colors that can be used by a <a href="#Skins">skin</a>.
|
|
Since every skin most likely has its own idea about what parts of it can be
|
|
<i>themed</i>, and different skins may have completely different numbers of
|
|
"themeable" parts, a particular theme can only be used with the skin it was designed
|
|
for. A particular skin, however, can have any number of themes. Which theme
|
|
will be actually used can be defined in Setup/OSD/Theme.
|
|
<p>
|
|
In order to make a skin "themeable" is shall create an object of type cTheme, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
static cTheme Theme;
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
The next step is to define the colors that shall be provided by this theme, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
THEME_CLR(Theme, clrTitle, 0xFFBC8024);
|
|
THEME_CLR(Theme, clrButtonRedFg, clrWhite);
|
|
THEME_CLR(Theme, clrButtonRedBg, clrRed);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
<tt>THEME_CLR()</tt> is a helper macro that adds the given color name
|
|
and its default color value to the theme.
|
|
<p>
|
|
Any color names can be used, but they should always start with <tt>clr...</tt> and
|
|
if a given color has a foreground and a background value, the two names shall be
|
|
distinguished by appending <tt>...Fg</tt> and <tt>...Bg</tt>, respectively.
|
|
<p>
|
|
Color values can be either 32 bit hexadecimal numbers in the form 0xAARRGGBB
|
|
(where the individual bytes represent Alpha (transparency), Red, Green
|
|
and Blue component, respectively), or one of the predefined color names from
|
|
<tt>VDR/osd.h</tt>.
|
|
<p>
|
|
In the actual drawing code of a skin, the color names defined with the <tt>THEME_CLR()</tt>
|
|
macros can be used to fetch the actual color values from the theme, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
osd->DrawText(x, y, s, Theme.Color(clrButtonRedFg), Theme.Color(clrButtonRedBg), font);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
By default this will use the colors that have been defined in the respective
|
|
<tt>THEME_CLR()</tt> line, but may be overwritten through user supplied theme
|
|
files (see <tt>man vdr(5)</tt> for information about the format of a theme file).
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Devices">Devices</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Expanding the possibilities</div><p>
|
|
|
|
By default VDR is based on using DVB PCI cards that are supported by the
|
|
LinuxDVB driver. However, a plugin can implement additional devices that
|
|
can be used as sources of MPEG data for viewing or recording, and also
|
|
as output devices for replaying. Such a device can be a physical card
|
|
that is installed in the PC (like, for instance, an MPEG encoder card that
|
|
allows the analog signal of a proprietary set-top box to be integrated
|
|
into a VDR system; or an analog TV receiver card, which does the MPEG encoding
|
|
"on the fly" - assuming your machine is fast enough), or just a software program that takes an MPEG data
|
|
stream and displays it, for instance, on an existing graphics adapter.
|
|
<p>
|
|
To implement an additional device, a plugin must derive a class from <tt>cDevice</tt>:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
#include <vdr/device.h>
|
|
|
|
class cMyDevice : public cDevice {
|
|
...
|
|
};
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
The derived class must implement several virtual functions, according to
|
|
the abilities this new class of devices can provide. See the comments in the
|
|
file <tt>VDR/device.h</tt> for more information on the various functions,
|
|
and also <tt>VDR/dvbdevice.[hc]</tt> for details on the implementation of
|
|
the <tt>cDvbDevice</tt>, which is used to access the DVB PCI cards.
|
|
<p>
|
|
<b>Channel selection</b>
|
|
<p>
|
|
If the new device can receive, it most likely needs to provide a way of
|
|
selecting which channel it shall tune to:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
<modified>virtual int NumProvidedSystems(void) const;</modified>
|
|
virtual bool ProvidesSource(int Source) const;
|
|
virtual bool ProvidesTransponder(const cChannel *Channel) const;
|
|
virtual bool ProvidesChannel(const cChannel *Channel, int Priority = -1, bool *NeedsDetachReceivers = NULL) const;
|
|
virtual bool SetChannelDevice(const cChannel *Channel, bool LiveView);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
These functions will be called with the desired source or channel and shall return whether
|
|
this device can provide the requested source or channel and whether tuning to it was successful,
|
|
respectively.
|
|
<p>
|
|
<b>Audio selection</b>
|
|
<p>
|
|
If the device can provide more than a single audio track, it can implement the
|
|
following function to make them available:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual void SetAudioTrackDevice(eTrackType Type);
|
|
virtual int GetAudioChannelDevice(void);
|
|
virtual void SetAudioChannelDevice(int AudioChannel);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<b>Recording</b>
|
|
<p>
|
|
A device that can be used for recording must implement the functions
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual bool SetPid(cPidHandle *Handle, int Type, bool On);
|
|
virtual bool OpenDvr(void);
|
|
virtual void CloseDvr(void);
|
|
virtual bool GetTSPacket(uchar *&Data);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
which allow VDR to set the PIDs that shall be recorded, set up the device for
|
|
recording (and shut it down again), and receive the MPEG data stream. The data
|
|
must be delivered in the form of a Transport Stream (TS), which consists of
|
|
packets that are all 188 bytes in size. Each call to <tt>GetTSPacket()</tt>
|
|
must deliver exactly one such packet (if one is currently available).
|
|
<p>
|
|
<b>Replaying</b>
|
|
<p>
|
|
The functions to implement replaying capabilities are
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual bool HasDecoder(void) const;
|
|
virtual bool CanReplay(void) const;
|
|
virtual bool SetPlayMode(ePlayMode PlayMode);
|
|
virtual int64_t GetSTC(void);
|
|
<modified>virtual bool IsPlayingVideo(void) const;</modified>
|
|
virtual bool HasIBPTrickSpeed(void);
|
|
virtual void TrickSpeed(int Speed);
|
|
virtual void Clear(void);
|
|
virtual void Play(void);
|
|
virtual void Freeze(void);
|
|
virtual void Mute(void);
|
|
virtual void StillPicture(const uchar *Data, int Length);
|
|
virtual bool Poll(cPoller &Poller, int TimeoutMs = 0);
|
|
virtual int PlayVideo(const uchar *Data, int Length);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
In addition, the following functions may be implemented to provide further
|
|
functionality:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual bool GrabImage(const char *FileName, bool Jpeg = true, int Quality = -1, int SizeX = -1, int SizeY = -1);
|
|
virtual void SetVideoFormat(bool VideoFormat16_9);
|
|
virtual void SetVolumeDevice(int Volume);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<b>Section Filtering</b>
|
|
<p>
|
|
If your device provides section filtering capabilities it can implement
|
|
the functions
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual int OpenFilter(u_short Pid, u_char Tid, u_char Mask);
|
|
<modified>virtual int ReadFilter(int Handle, void *Buffer, size_t Length);</modified>
|
|
virtual void CloseFilter(int Handle);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
which must open and close a file handle that delivers section data for the given
|
|
filter parameters.
|
|
<p>
|
|
In order to actually start section handling, the
|
|
device also needs to call the function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
StartSectionHandler();
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
from its constructor.
|
|
<p>
|
|
See <a href="#Filters">Filters</a> on how to set up actual filters that can
|
|
handle section data.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<b>On Screen Display</b>
|
|
<p>
|
|
If your device provides On Screen Display (OSD) capabilities (which every device
|
|
that is supposed to be used as a primary device should do), it shall implement
|
|
an "OSD provider" class, derived from <tt>cOsdProvider</tt>, which, when its <tt>CreateOsd()</tt>
|
|
function is called, returns an object derived from <tt>cOsd</tt>, which can be used to
|
|
access the device's OSD:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
class cMyOsdProvider : public cOsdProvider {
|
|
public:
|
|
cMyOsdProvider(void);
|
|
virtual cOsd *CreateOsd(int Left, int Top);
|
|
};
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
In its <tt>MakePrimaryDevice()</tt> function the device shall create an object
|
|
of this class, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
void cMyDevice::MakePrimaryDevice(bool On)
|
|
{
|
|
new cMyOsdProvider;
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
The OSD provider object is allocated on the heap and shall not be deleted
|
|
(it will be deleted automatically in case a different device sets up an OSD
|
|
provider, or when the program ends).
|
|
<p>
|
|
Note that an OSD implementation need not be physically linked to the device
|
|
in any way. All it needs to make sure is that the OSD will be visible to the
|
|
user - whether this goes through OSD facilities of the physical device (like
|
|
a "full featured" DVB card) or through a graphics adapter that overlays its
|
|
output with the video signal, doesn't matter.
|
|
<p>
|
|
<div class="modified">
|
|
In order to be able to determine the proper size of the OSD, the device
|
|
should implement the function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual void GetOsdSize(int &Width, int &Height, double &Aspect);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
By default, an OSD size of 720x480 with an aspect ratio of 1.0 is assumed.
|
|
</div modified>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<b>Initializing new devices</b>
|
|
<p>
|
|
A derived <tt>cDevice</tt> class shall implement a static function
|
|
in which it determines whether the necessary hardware to run this sort of
|
|
device is actually present in this machine (or whatever other prerequisites
|
|
might be important), and then creates as many device objects as necessary.
|
|
See <tt>VDR/dvbdevice.c</tt> for the implementation of the <tt>cDvbDevice</tt>
|
|
initialize function.
|
|
<p>
|
|
A plugin that adds devices to a VDR instance shall call this
|
|
function from its <a href="#Getting started"><tt>Initialize()</tt></a> function
|
|
to make sure other plugins that may need to have access to all available devices
|
|
will see them in their <a href="#Getting started"><tt>Start()</tt></a> function.
|
|
<p>
|
|
Nothing needs to be done to shut down the devices. VDR will automatically
|
|
shut down (delete) all devices when the program terminates. It is therefore
|
|
important that the devices are created on the heap, using the <tt>new</tt>
|
|
operator!
|
|
|
|
<div class="modified">
|
|
<p>
|
|
<b>Device hooks</b>
|
|
<p>
|
|
VDR has builtin facilities that select which device is able to provide a given
|
|
transponder. However, there may be situations where the setup is so special
|
|
that it requires considerations that exceed the scope of the core VDR code.
|
|
This is where <i>device hooks</i> can be used.
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
class cMyDeviceHook : public cDeviceHook {
|
|
public:
|
|
cMyDeviceHook(void);
|
|
virtual bool DeviceProvidesTransponder(const cDevice *Device, const cChannel *Channel) const;
|
|
};
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
In its <tt>DeviceProvidesTransponder()</tt> function the device hook can take
|
|
whatever actions are necessary to determine whether the given Device can
|
|
provide the given Channel's transponder, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
bool cMyDeviceHook::DeviceProvidesTransponder(const cDevice *Device, const cChannel *Channel) const
|
|
{
|
|
if (<i>condition where Device can't provide Channel</i>)
|
|
return false;
|
|
return true;
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
A plugin that creates a derived cDeviceHook shall do so in its <tt>Initialize()</tt>
|
|
function, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
new cMyDeviceHook;
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
and shall not delete this object. It will be automatically deleted when the program ends.
|
|
</div modified>
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Audio">Audio</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">"The stereo effect may only be experienced if stereo equipment is used!"</div><p>
|
|
|
|
There are many different ways to replay additional audio tracks, like Dolby Digital.
|
|
So VDR offers a plugin interface that allows for the implementation of any kind of
|
|
audio replay facility.
|
|
<p>
|
|
To implement a new audio output facility, simply derive a class from <tt>cAudio</tt>,
|
|
as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
#include <vdr/audio.h>
|
|
#include <vdr/thread.h>
|
|
|
|
class cMyAudio : public cAudio, private cThread {
|
|
private:
|
|
virtual void Action(void);
|
|
public:
|
|
cMyAudio(void);
|
|
virtual void Play(const uchar *Data, int Length, uchar Id);
|
|
virtual void Mute(bool On);
|
|
virtual void Clear(void);
|
|
};
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
You should create your derived audio object in the
|
|
<a href="#Getting started"><tt>Start()</tt></a> function of your plugin.
|
|
Note that the object has to be created on the heap (using <tt>new</tt>),
|
|
and you shall not delete it at any point (it will be deleted automatically
|
|
when the program ends).
|
|
<p>
|
|
The <tt>Play()</tt> function will be offered complete audio PES packets
|
|
and has to accept each packet immediately. It must return as soon as possible,
|
|
in order to not delay the overall replay process. Therefore you may want to
|
|
also derive your class from <tt>cThread</tt> and run the actual audio processing
|
|
as a separate thread. Note that the offered data is only valid within the call
|
|
to <tt>Play()</tt>, so if you can't process the entire block immediately, you
|
|
will need to copy it for later processing in your thread.
|
|
<p>
|
|
The <tt>Mute()</tt> and <tt>Clear()</tt> functions will be called whenever the audio shall
|
|
be muted, or any buffered data shall be cleared, respectively.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Remote Control">Remote Control</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">The joy of zapping!</div><p>
|
|
|
|
There are several ways to control the operation of VDR. The builtin methods
|
|
are using the PC keyboard, a homebuilt RCU unit or the LIRC interface.
|
|
Of course there may be many more ways you might think of to implement a
|
|
remote control, so a plugin can use the <tt>cRemote</tt> class to do that.
|
|
<p>
|
|
The simplest method for a plugin to issue commands to VDR is to call the
|
|
static function <tt>cRemote::Put(eKeys Key)</tt>, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
cRemote::Put(kUp);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
In this case the plugin must do the mapping of whatever incoming signal or code
|
|
it processes to the <tt>eKeys</tt> values itself. This makes sense if the incoming
|
|
codes are well known and won't ever change.
|
|
<p>
|
|
In cases where the incoming codes are not known, or not all available keys may
|
|
be supported by the actual remote control in use, you may want to derive your
|
|
own remote control class from <tt>cRemote</tt>, as in
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
#include <vdr/remote.h>
|
|
#include <vdr/thread.h>
|
|
|
|
class cMyRemote : public cRemote, private cThread {
|
|
private:
|
|
virtual void Action(void);
|
|
public:
|
|
cMyRemote(const char *Name);
|
|
virtual bool Initialize(void);
|
|
};
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
Note that deriving from <tt>cThread</tt> is not required for a remote control
|
|
class to work, but typically you may want to have a separate thread running that
|
|
collects the input and delivers it to the <tt>cRemote</tt> base class.
|
|
<p>
|
|
You should create your derived remote control object in the
|
|
<a href="#Getting started"><tt>Start()</tt></a> function of your plugin.
|
|
Note that the object has to be created on the heap (using <tt>new</tt>),
|
|
and you shall not delete it at any point (it will be deleted automatically
|
|
when the program ends).
|
|
<p>
|
|
The constructor of your remote control class should look like this
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
cMyRemote::cMyRemote(const char *Name)
|
|
:cRemote(Name)
|
|
{
|
|
Start();
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
The <tt>Name</tt> is important in order for the <tt>cRemote</tt> base class
|
|
to be able to distinguish the codes for the various remote controls.
|
|
When creating your <tt>cMyRemote</tt> object you should use the value returned
|
|
by the <tt>Name()</tt> member function of the plugin class, which returns the
|
|
plugin's name. Calling <tt>Start()</tt> will start the thread that collects
|
|
the incoming data (by calling your <tt>Action()</tt> function).
|
|
In case you need to do any other setup steps, like opening a file or initializing
|
|
member variables, you should do so before calling <tt>Start()</tt>.
|
|
<p>
|
|
If your remote control for some reason can't work (maybe because it was unable to
|
|
open some file handle it requires) it can implement the virtual function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual bool Ready(void);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
and have it return <i>false</i>. In that case VDR will not try to learn keys from
|
|
that remote control.
|
|
VDR will handle everything necessary to learn the key mappings of your remote
|
|
control. In order to do so, it will first call the virtual function <tt>Initialize()</tt>,
|
|
in which you should take all necessary steps to make sure your remote control
|
|
can be accessed. This may, for instance, include trying various communications
|
|
protocols. <tt>Initialize()</tt>, if implemented, shall only return after it has
|
|
made sure data can be received from the remote control. Before calling this
|
|
function, VDR will prompt the user on the OSD to press any key on the remote control.
|
|
As soon as your derived <tt>cRemote</tt> class has detected useful incoming data,
|
|
<tt>Initialize()</tt> should return <i>true</i>. If any fatal error occurs, <i>false</i>
|
|
should be returned.
|
|
<p>
|
|
If your remote control class needs some setup data that shall be
|
|
readily available next time VDR starts (without having to go through the initialization
|
|
procedure again) it can use the <tt>cRemote</tt> member functions
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
void PutSetup(const char *Setup);
|
|
const char *GetSetup(void);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
to store and retrieve a character string containing whatever data is needed.
|
|
Note that the <tt>Initialize()</tt> function will only be called if there are
|
|
no key mappings known for this remote control. Once the key mappings have been
|
|
learned, <tt>Initialize()</tt> will never be called again.
|
|
<p>
|
|
The <tt>cRemote</tt> class assumes that any incoming remote control code can be
|
|
expressed as a character string. So whatever data your remote control provides
|
|
needs to be given to the base class by calling
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
Put(const char *Code, bool Repeat = false, bool Release = false);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
where <tt>Code</tt> is the string representation of the remote control's
|
|
incoming data. <tt>Repeat</tt> and <tt>Release</tt> are boolean flags that
|
|
indicate whether this is a repeated keypress, or the key has been released.
|
|
Since a common case for remote control data is to be given as a numerical
|
|
value, there is another <tt>Put()</tt> function available for your convenience,
|
|
which takes a 64 bit unsigned integer value instead of a character string:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
Put(uint64 Code, bool Repeat = false, bool Release = false);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
The other parameters have the same meaning as in the first version of this function.
|
|
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Conditional Access">Conditional Access</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">Members only!</div><p>
|
|
|
|
Pay TV providers usually encrypt their broadcasts, so that only viewers who
|
|
have the proper smart card can watch them. Such a smart card needs to be inserted
|
|
into a CAM (Conditional Access Module), which in turn goes into a CI (Common
|
|
Interface) slot.
|
|
<p>
|
|
VDR's mechanisms for supporting Conditional Access are mainly the two classes
|
|
<tt>cCiAdapter</tt> and <tt>cCamSlot</tt>. A <tt>cCiAdapter</tt> handles exactly
|
|
one CI, and can provide several CAM slots, represented by the appropriate
|
|
number of <tt>cCamSlot</tt> objects.
|
|
<p>
|
|
In order to decrypt a particular channel, a <tt>cCiAdapter</tt> with a <tt>cCamSlot</tt>
|
|
that contains the necessary CAM will be assigned to a <tt>cDevice</tt>, and exactly
|
|
one of its CAM slots will be activated. Whether or not a <tt>cCiAdapter</tt> can
|
|
be assigned to a particular device depends on the hardware implementation.
|
|
Some devices (like the Siemens/Technotrend DVB cards) are hardwired with their
|
|
CI adapters, so the <tt>cCiAdapter</tt> for these can only be used with one device.
|
|
Other hardware implementations may allow CI adapters and devices to be connected
|
|
through some sort of matrix switch. When trying to decrypt an encrypted channel,
|
|
VDR will automatically select a useful combination of device and CAM slot.
|
|
<p>
|
|
If a plugin implements a derived <tt>cCiAdapter</tt>, it has to implement
|
|
several low level functions that handle the actual data transfer (see <tt>dvbci.c</tt>
|
|
for example). The decision whether the adapter can actually be assigned to different
|
|
devices is made in the function
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
virtual bool Assign(cDevice *Device, bool Query = false);
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
See the description of this function in <tt>ci.h</tt> for details.
|
|
|
|
<div class="modified">
|
|
<hr><h2><a name="Electronic Program Guide">Electronic Program Guide</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<div class="blurb">The grass is always greener on the other side...</div><p>
|
|
|
|
In case the <i>Electronic Program Guide (EPG)</i> provided by the broadcaster
|
|
isn't sufficient for your taste, you can implement a <tt>cEpgHandler</tt> to
|
|
improve it from external sources. For instance, to replace the description
|
|
of the broadcaster's EPG with one from some external database, you could do:
|
|
|
|
<p><table><tr><td class="code"><pre>
|
|
#include <vdr/epg.h>
|
|
|
|
class cMyEpgHandler : public cEpgHandler {
|
|
public:
|
|
virtual bool SetDescription(cEvent *Event, const char *Description);
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
bool cMyEpgHandler::SetDescription(cEvent *Event, const char *Description)
|
|
{
|
|
Event->SetDescription(DescriptionFromDatabase(Event));
|
|
return true;
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table><p>
|
|
|
|
where <tt>DescriptionFromDatabase()</tt> would derive the description of the
|
|
given event from some external source. Note that the function returns <tt>true</tt>
|
|
to signal VDR that no other EPG handlers shall be queried after this one.
|
|
<p>
|
|
See <tt>VDR/epg.h</tt> for details.
|
|
</div modified>
|
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|